Bengal pushes to ramp up production of green crackers
In its effort to speed up the process for issuing production licenses and trade licenses to the manufacturers of green crackers across the state, the state Environment department will hold a meeting with senior officials of the state Fire and Emergency Services department on March 31.
“We want to develop a cohesive one-window system for providing the go-ahead to those manufacturers who have already received necessary training from NEERI. I have asked my concerned department officials to be armed with the necessary feedback of the impediments faced by the green cracker manufacturers so that it can be taken up and resolved in the meeting,“ Manas Bhunia, state Environment minister said.
The minister has already discussed the issue with the state Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose who along with senior officials of the department, including Additional Chief Secretary and DG (Fire), will be present at the meeting. Bhunia, Principal Secretary of his department Roshni Sen and other concerned senior officials will be present.
The state Environment department is planning to set up a cluster for green crackers in the State to facilitate the manufacture of more green crackers within the state and cut down on imports from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu.
“There are many poor cracker makers who do not have space (land) which is required for the manufacture of green crackers. So we are planning to take up a cluster-based approach so that these poor makers can be provided with a common space,“ a senior official of the Environment department said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed the state government to identify the hurdles in the manufacture of green crackers and accordingly take measures to remove them so that the state becomes self-reliant in this and stop import from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu.Pradesh Atasbazi Byabasayee Samity (PABS) has organised hands-on training for 50 manufacturing units on the production of green crackers from scientists of NEERI.
